


Only in 1,000 Ways

by avadedrahetarra



Series: Only in 1,000 Ways [1]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Language, M/M, mild violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4030996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avadedrahetarra/pseuds/avadedrahetarra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud can't sleep. Dreams of Sephiroth plague every moment of his dreams. Vincent is beside himself, unsure what to do, and Cloud's friends are at a loss. Reeve brings news that an old enemy is emerging from the shadows, sending a shiver through the people of Edge. In the looming eclipse of Midgar's destruction, will the World Heroes be able to pull together and find victory once more?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Cloud woke in a panicked sweat, gasping in the cool night air. Sitting up, he let the light blanket fall from his bare chest and pool into his lap. Panting quietly, he rubbed his face with a shaking hand. Beside him, Vincent stirred in the darkness, rolling onto his back and peering at the younger man through the shadows.

“Cloud?”

Shaking his head roughly, the blonde slipped from the bed and into the hall. Vincent lay in silence, listening to the others receding footsteps, before letting go a deep breath. This was the eighteenth night, if he recalled properly, that Cloud had done this. Unknown to his companion, Vincent was always awake when Cloud fell into slumber, and he knew the exact moment that the dreams began to plague his sleeping mind. But Cloud would never own up to these things, and Vincent wasn’t one to push. Cloud would wake in a frenzy and leave the room. It would be hours later before he’d come back, and Vincent would pretend to sleep again, not allowing himself to really rest until he felt Cloud curl up behind him and drift off again. Then, he’d turn over and draw the young man into his arms, will the nightmares away, and sleep.

Vincent wasn’t sure what to do at this juncture. He’d followed Cloud from the room the first night and ended up ensnared in an argument with him over petty things. After that, Vincent had learned to leave Cloud to his own devices.

Settling himself back into his pillow, the dark eyed vampire studied the shadows along the ceiling. He considered speaking with Tifa about this behavior, hoping maybe she could help sort things out. He almost didn’t notice when Cloud came back into the room until he felt the bed shift.

Cloud curled against Vincent’s side, resting his blonde head on the sturdy shoulder beneath it.

“I’m okay,” he whispered.

“I hope so. Cloud, what’s going on?”

Cloud tensed. Vincent could almost envision the expression of sadness mingling with Cloud’s normal blank one.

“He’s back,” Cloud finally whispered, his voice almost too quiet to hear.

“Who is?”

“Sephiroth.” It was Vincent’s turn to tense. “In my head, I mean,” Cloud quickly amended. “All in my head. My dreams turn to nightmares. Vincent… he’s trying to kill me.”

Vincent remained silent, pulling Cloud tighter to his side. He carefully kept his clawed arm away, but the one he could still use, now devoid of its characteristic glove, petted the soft skin of Cloud’s back. Skin to skin like this, Vincent could feel Cloud’s heartbeat, and he knew Cloud could hear his. Slowly, the blonde drifted back into sleep. Once again, as he’d begun doing, Vincent willed the nightmares to stay away, but he could not sleep. When the first rays of dawn began to creep over Edge, Vincent let his eyes fall closed finally. Daylight always made the shadows weak. He only hoped it worked on nightmares, too.

_“Are sins ever forgiven?”_

_“I’ve never tried.”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud can't sleep. Dreams of Sephiroth plague every moment of his dreams. Vincent is beside himself, unsure what to do, and Cloud's friends are at a loss. Reeve brings news that an old enemy is emerging from the shadows, sending a shiver through the people of Edge. In the looming eclipse of Midgar's destruction, will the World Heroes be able to pull together and find victory once more?
> 
> Dubbed “Reno’s Coming Clean” chapter.

Cloud crouched before the Buster Sword, his hands dangling limply between his knees. The faded pink ribbon still tied dutifully around his left bicep twisted in the breeze, tickling his skin. Fenrir stood a few feet away, the many pieces of First Tsurugi stowed in the compartments. He’d muted his phone and left it with the bike as well. He needed to think, needed to work things out in his mind before he lost it all together.

Strands of hair fell across his brow, obscuring his Mako blue eyes. The glow had begun to fade in the last few years as his body became less dependent upon the Mako. Still, he knew his body was altered on a genetic level, so he’d still suffer his longevity. Hojo hadn’t been stupid, that much was for certain.

“Zack,” he whispered, his eyes tracing the rust running the length of the blade, “what would you do if you were here?”

The breeze picked up momentarily, causing the Buster Sword to shake a little. It almost seemed as if Zack was laughing at him. Almost. They’d been friends for five years, despite Zack being a first class in SOLDIER and Cloud being a mere MP. Zack had ended up saving Cloud in the end, hauling him from Nibelheim to Midgar before being gunned down by Shinra snipers.

“Some friend you are,” Cloud muttered, his eyes scanning the surrounding area. “No words of wisdom this time?” The breeze moved again, harder this time, twisting the tails of the ribbon around itself. “Fine. I get it. Thanks.”

A distant hum reached his ears. Standing upright, Cloud moved closer to the sword and looked into the valley below him. Someone was coming, the trail of dust kicked up by the motorcycle indicating a high rate of speed. Moving quickly, he went to Fenrir and dug around for a few moments. Finding his binoculars, he stepped back to the edge and focused the lenses on the approaching figure. The driver wore a dark helmet, but Cloud could see the long red ponytail trailing out behind him.

“Reno,” he muttered, dropping the binoculars from his eyes. “Great.”

Knowing it was useless to run, not when Reno was already three-quarters of the way to him, Cloud decided to see what the Turk wanted. Fifteen minutes later, Reno crested the last rise and found the blonde swordsman leaning nonchalantly against Fenrir. He raised a hand in friendly, neutral greeting as he slowed to a stop. Dropping the kickstand, he drew the helmet from his head.

“Yo, Cloud! I was hoping to catch you out here.” Reno smiled.

“What do you want, Reno?”

The red-heads smile slid abruptly off of his face at Cloud’s cold tone, his hands going up in a semi-defensive motion. “Come on, Cloud! After all we been through, you still treat me like this? What gives?”

“Answer me one question first: did Rufus Shinra send you?”

“No. Turk’s honor, yo.” Reno made a motion over his chest. “Cross my heart, I’m here on my own.”

“How’d you ditch Rude?”

Reno blushed, laughing nervously. “Tifa.”

Cloud’s eyes narrowed momentarily, but he refused to react otherwise. Tifa could take care of herself, and it was no secret to anyone that Rude had a crush on her. So what if Tifa found herself returning the affection? Rude knew that Cloud would kill him if he hurt her. That is, if Tifa didn’t do it first and he could beat Cid to it.

“What do you want, Reno?” Cloud asked again.

“I just… want to talk. That’s all.”

“Then talk.”

Reno dropped his hands to his sides, looking slightly put-off and a whole lot of defeated. He hadn’t expected to get Cloud’s attention so easily, and now that he had it, he was completely at a loss. He had to talk, and soon, or he’d explode. Only problem was that Rude would never understand, Tseng would lecture him, Elena would want to talk about Tseng, and Rufus would flat out murder him. Barret was forever trying to shoot him in the head, Cid always thumbed his nose and turned away, Tifa would love nothing more than to drop-kick him (but wouldn’t because of Rude), Nanaki was more or less absentee ninety-eight percent of the time, and Vincent scared the living hell out of him.

That left Cloud.

Of all the people on the planet, Reno was left talking to the most hard-headed, stubborn one of all. It was enough to make the Turk want to cry.

“I’ve been thinking about getting out, Cloud,” Reno finally spit out.

“Out?” Cloud raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused.

“Out!” Reno waved his arms. “Out of Edge, out of Shinra, out of the Turks! Off this part of the continent! Just out, gone, away! How much more can I spell it out?”

“Why?” Cloud asked quietly, folding his arms and studying Reno closely.

Reno stopped. The one word question rocked him. Why? Why was Reno ready to run? His mind flashed back over the last year and a half. To the discovery of Deepground. Reno had almost died when those monsters had been unburied. He’d come so damn close that he’d been forced to reconsider everything about himself. He wasn’t much older than Cloud himself, but he’d been through a hell of a lot more in his service to Shinra. He felt old. Ancient. And lost.

“I’m tired, yo,” he said. “Tired of fighting, tired of taking orders. Tired of chasing your spiky-headed ass all over the planet, too. All I’ve known my whole life is how to do what someone else told me to do. My folks, former President Shinra, Rufus, Tseng. Only person who never gave me orders was me.”

Cloud nodded, shoving off of Fenrir and moving back toward the Buster Sword. Reno followed at a safe distance.

“Cloud, how do you do it? How do you handle everyone always watching you? All the time, day and night, eyes everywhere. Always watching you. How do you stand it?”

The swordsman didn’t answer right away. He took his time, studying the area of forest that had devoured what was left of Midgar. He felt a twinge of pain in his heart, knowing that Zack had been so close to it, so close to getting back to Aerith, when he’d died on this out-cropping. Closing his eyes, he pictured his friend laying here, bleeding to death. Such an anti-climactic ending to a wonderful life.

_“Live. You'll be my living legacy. My honor and dreams... they belong to you now.”_

“I endure it because I know what it’s like to be a shadow,” Cloud answered simply. “I was Zack’s living shadow for five years. I was Sephiroth’s imagined shadow after that. Now, I’m not a shadow anymore. I’m not a nobody. I’m me, a planet hero. I’ve got a life now, a name of my own.”

“Just like you, Cloud,” Reno chuckled. “Always the first to down yourself, yet you still got pride. It’s one of the reasons I like you, yo.”

Cloud cast a sharp glance over his shoulder, effectively shutting Reno up. The Turk knew that look, even if the glow in Cloud’s eyes had faded by at least half.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, man,” Reno said easily. “Just sayin’, you got a way about you that’s not like most others.”

“What about you, Reno?” Cloud turned to face him. “What are you going to do now? I’m sure you haven’t said anything to anyone else about this. You’ve got your reasons, of course, but it’ll come out sooner or later. Things like this always do.”

Reno stared hard at Cloud.

“I still got a lot of thinking to do,” he shrugged. “I still don’t know if I’ll ever really do it. Leaving the Turks and Shinra would be like cutting off my own arm. It just wouldn’t feel right, not at first. I can’t imagine not doing it, but I know it’ll kill me one day.”

“That’s the way of things,” Cloud said. He went back and climbed onto Fenrir, drawing his driving goggles down over his eyes. “Reno, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that you have to be prepared to live with the consequences of whatever action you take. You’re a hero, too.”

Fenrir roared to life. Using his heel to stow the kickstand, Cloud swung wide around Reno and headed down the cliff. Reno put his helmet on and followed suit, his mind racing. Cloud pulled ahead of him within moments of hitting the flat stretch of the valley. So caught up in his musings was Reno that he almost missed it.

From out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning flashed. Cloud’s body went rigid on his bike, jerking upright. In the next second, another bolt sent him flying backward off of Fenrir. Reno swerved to avoid Clouds flying body, tipping the bike he rode onto its side. The Turk impacted hard with the ground, rolling and cussing as he went. Recovering quickly, he was on his feet, discarding the helmet so he could see.

Cloud hit the ground just behind where Reno had been and slid and rolled another ten feet. Fenrir, driverless, went out of control, crashing into a pillar of stone. One look told Reno that the bike was useless. A quick scan told him that no one was nearby, so he headed for Cloud.

“Cloud?” he yelled, dropping down next to the unconscious man. “Yo, Spiky! You okay?”

Cloud didn’t stir. Feeling along his jaw line, Reno breathed a sigh of relief to find a pulse.

“Damn,” he spit, reaching for his phone. “Rude? I need you and the chopper right now. Cloud’s down and he needs help.”

Stowing the phone back in his pocket, Reno gathered Cloud into his arms to wait.

“Damn, Cloud,” he muttered, taking another look around. “What the hell have you gotten into this time? And why the hell are you dragging me in with you?”


End file.
